Australia’s foreign ministry announced on Saturday that it will send a delegation to Beijing for talks with Chinese counterparts next week in an effort to normalize relations with that country. The trip will include members from business, government, academia, the media, and the arts.
The Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office announced that trade, investment, people-to-people connections, as well as regional and global security, will be topics of discussion at the discussions on next Thursday.
From 2014 until its termination in 2020, the high-level conversation took place annually.
In a statement, Wong added that the talks represent “another step towards increasing bilateral engagement and stabilizing our relationship with China”.
The Australian delegation, which also includes their former foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, will be led by their former trade minister Craig Emerson.
“Since it was established, the dialogue has been an opportunity to deepen mutual understanding with Chinese participants and to find common ground,” Emerson said in a statement.
Beijing’s delegation will be led by Li Zhaoxing, a former foreign affairs minister of China.
Resuming the conversation is the most recent sign of relations between Beijing and Canberra warming up after years of friction.
China had taken exception at Australia’s laws against foreign influence activities, its refusal to award 5G contracts to Huawei, and its demand for an impartial probe into the causes of the Covid-19 outbreak.
However, since the centre-left government in Canberra adopted a less combative policy toward China following its election last year, ties appear to have improved.
